From Derwentwater to Calendar Girls: Tim Firth’s Cumbrian full-circle moment

Award-winning playwright and screenwriter Tim Firth has revealed the surprisingly deep connection between the Lake District, Keswick and some of his best-known work, including Neville’s Island, Sheila’s Island and now Calendar Girls the Musical, which comes to Theatre by the Lake from Thursday 6 August to Saturday 5 September.

Speaking ahead of the production’s Keswick run, Tim reflected on how childhood holidays, teenage music camps and years spent visiting the Lakes quietly became part of his creative life.

“There’s something magical about Keswick,” he said. “Landscape absolutely becomes part of storytelling.”

Long before Calendar Girls became an award-winning film, play and musical, Tim was already drawing inspiration from Derwentwater. His acclaimed comedy Neville’s Island, and its later all-female companion play Sheila’s Island, were both inspired by Rampsholme Island in the middle of Derwentwater.

“The idea of being shipwrecked inland fascinated me,” he explained. “What made it funny was that you could see Keswick, but you couldn’t get to it.”

Tim says the realism of setting the play specifically in Keswick helped give the story authenticity. “Just because something is local doesn’t mean it isn’t international,” he said. “People all over the world might not know Keswick, but they understand instantly the comedy of being shipwrecked inland.”

His connection to Cumbria stretches back even further.

At just 15 years old, Tim travelled to Cleator Moor for a music camp, one of his first experiences away from home and something he now sees as a pivotal moment in his life as a writer and songwriter.

“Those weeks in Cumbria were the beginning of everything creatively,” he said. “It gave me that first leap of bravery.”

Those early experiences eventually led him into theatre, television, film and songwriting  and later to meeting Gary Barlow through a songwriting competition. The pair would go on to create Calendar Girls the Musical together.

Now, bringing the musical to Theatre by the Lake feels especially meaningful.

Tim also discovered another unexpected local connection: one of Theatre by the Lake’s long-standing members, Ruth Stirrup, was his PE teacher at school. “All these strands somehow come back together,” he reflected.

He also remembers visiting Keswick years ago and seeing the famous travelling Century Theatre, affectionately known as the “Blue Box”, which stood on the lakeshore site before Theatre by the Lake was built.

“To now have Calendar Girls here feels genuinely special,” he said.

While the story of Calendar Girls is rooted in Yorkshire Women’s Institute culture, Tim believes its themes of friendship, humour and community resonate strongly across places like Cumbria.

“Calendar Girls is about community and ordinary people doing something extraordinary,” he said. “That spirit isn’t exclusive to the North, but Northern communities often recognise it instantly.”

The Theatre by the Lake production also features community cast members from across Cumbria performing alongside professional actors, something Tim says reflects the original heart of the story.

“Every time the musical is staged, people recreate that original bravery,” he said.

Based on the true story of a group of Yorkshire WI members who created a nude calendar to raise money for charity following the death of a friend’s husband, Calendar Girls the Musical has become one of the UK’s most-loved musicals, celebrated for its warmth, humour and emotional honesty.

And this summer, overlooking the same lake that helped inspire part of Tim Firth’s writing journey, the story arrives in Keswick in what feels like a genuine full-circle moment.

Credit: Interviewed by Rachel Kearns from Theatre by the Lake

Calendar Girls the Musical runs at Theatre by the Lake from Thursday 6 August – Saturday 5 September 2026.

Tickets are available now at: Calendar Girls the musical | Theatre by the Lake, Keswick – Theatre by the Lake